


Tremulous Hearts (Left Out in the Cold)

by ellacj



Series: 52 Weeks of Swan Queen [22]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, lots of fluff, snow queen is only mentioned, that's about it really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 22:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4117549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold."</p><p>-Andre Maurois</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tremulous Hearts (Left Out in the Cold)

It’s mid-summer the day the curse comes. Not the curse of the queen, the one that everyone expected and feared, but a different curse. One possibly more terrible than any curse the queen could even imagine. Early one morning a flash of light covers the land and a loud thundering sound erupts over everything. The Snow Queen’s curse has arrived, and the world freezes over so fast the flowers still glow vibrant in their icy shells.

A week after the curse hits the queen is driven from the Mills palace and the Snow Queen takes over the throne. Emma thinks nothing of it – one evil queen is the same as another – and the kingdom goes on as normal. It’s months later before Emma meets the woman who changes everything simply by showing her face.

“Who are you?” Emma demands of the woman at the end of her arrow.

The woman hesitates. “My name is Regina.”

Emma narrows her eyes. She knew this woman looked familiar. “What are you doing out here, _Your Majesty_?” she asks with venom. There’s no reason for her not to loose the arrow now and end the life of the queen no one loved. So why hasn’t she?

“I’m not the queen anymore, you know,” Regina snaps. “I’m trying to survive, the same as you.”

“And what are you doing in my part of the woods?”

Regina tilts her head. “I know you. How do I know you?”

“Emma of the Hood at your service.” Emma tilts her chin downward in a mockery of a bow.

“The thief.” Regina smiles. “Well, I should thank you. You and your men gave mine quite some fright. It was quite entertaining.”

Emma frowns. “What?”

“Did you really think I missed all you stole from me? I live in excess, Emma. I was practically giving your men handouts before this damned curse came.”

“The Merry Men are all gone,” Emma says abruptly. “Most of them didn’t survive past a month or two. The ones who did went off to find their families again.”

“And what of you?” Regina’s eyes grow wide, and they could even be described as concerned if Emma was dumb enough to believe it. “Surely you want to search for your family.”

“No family to search for.” Emma plasters on a coy smile, the same one she always does when talking about her family. “The Merry Men were my brothers, and they were all the family I wanted.”

“They’re gone now,” Regina points out.

“Yeah. They are.”

“You must be lonely.”

Emma’s grip tightens around her bow. “I don’t need anyone,” she says through clenched teeth.

Regina shrugs. “That doesn’t mean you can’t want.” She takes a step closer, ignoring how Emma pulls the string of the bow tighter toward her face. “I’ve spent the last few months with no one. So have you. Surely there’s something that can be done about that.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that if we work together we have a much better chance of surviving until the curse is broken.”

Emma frowns. “How can you be so sure it’s gonna break?”

“All curses are, in time.” Emma tries to pretend that she imagines the bitterness in Regina’s gaze. She can’t quite convince herself.

“Okay, you know what? Fine. Let’s work together. But if you try anything I’ll have your head in the snow five feet from your body before you can count to ten.”

“You’re not the friendliest person around, are you?”

“You don’t survive by making friends.” Emma lowers her bow to her side, letting the string fall to rest. “You of all people should know that.”

“Fair point.” Regina glances around the area. “Have you got a shelter?”

“Follow me.”

 

Regina is much more skilled with a bow than expected, and she quickly masters the art of finding and killing animals hiding in the winter landscape. Sending Regina out each day gives Emma time to fortify the shelter, adding to the insulation, always improving their chances of staying alive. They form a quiet partnership, each of them learning and revealing new things about each other each and every day.

Slowly, as time passes, sharing a bedroll gets less and less strange as they realize that the arrangement is much warmer than sleeping separately. And, though Emma refuses to admit it, the contact is nice too.

Exactly a year after the curse is cast, a blizzard hits the forest that drives them closer – in every way – than they’ve ever been.

“Think the Snow Queen’s angry?” Emma mutters, moving herself even closer to the meek fire.

Regina smiles tightly. “I can’t believe she can live like this.”

“It probably doesn’t bother her as much as us.”

“That’s true.” Regina huddles close to Emma. “Do you ever wish for something more than just the two of us?”

Emma’s quiet for a long moment before sighing and moving her hand to cover Regina’s knee. “I don’t know. I’ve always been kind of a loner. I guess I just don’t really crave human company as much as everyone else does.”

“I understand that.”

“It’s been nice, though. You and me.”

Regina turns to face Emma, a small smile appearing on her face to match shining eyes that hold so much more than she lets on. “I’m glad I ran into you,” she says softly.

Emma grins. “Me too.” She squeezes Regina’s leg and moves her thumb in small circles around the thick fabric of her pants. “I’m gonna head to bed.”

Regina scoops a handful of snow from outside the shelter and drops it onto the fire, and the entire area goes dark as the flames fizzle out. At this point it’s just a habit for Regina to tuck herself tightly against Emma and for Emma to wrap her arms around Regina and hold her close. It’s the only way to get through the night without freezing to death.

At least, that’s what they insist is the reason.

When the sun swings back around into position, Emma awakes sweating profusely in the heat. For a moment she’s annoyed, pushing herself away from the burning hot body beside her, before it really hits her. It’s _hot outside_.

She scrambles out of bed, ripping off her shirt and pants and basking in the heat as she sit in her underclothes on the grass she can hardly believe was ever snow beside the bedroll. Slowly, Regina wakes up, and her eyes go wide as she sits up. “It’s broken,” she breathes.

 Emma grins. “Isn’t it fantastic?”

Regina frowns as she takes Emma in. “Your clothes.”

“It was hot in here!”

“Fair enough.” Regina wriggles out of the bedroll, stripping down to her underclothes and moving to the shelter entrance.

Emma holds out a hand to grab her leg and stop her. “Where are you going?”

“Outside.”

“Like that?”

Regina smirks. “Who’s around to see it?” She shakes Emma off and goes outside, Emma following just a step behind. “It feels amazing,” she says, eyes closed and head tilted back in the heat.

Emma taps her on the shoulder, pointing to the little lake just beyond them. “The lake’s melted,” she murmurs. “You wanna?”

“Of course I want to.”

And so, hand in hand, the two of them run mostly naked to the water’s edge, taking only a second’s hesitation before leaping in. The water is cool, but refreshingly so. It’s a welcome change from the blizzards and freezing temperatures of the Snow Queen’s curse. It feels so wonderful to be swimming around in the lake in the blazing sun with the woman she-

“Come here!” Regina interrupts Emma’s thoughts, dragging her through the water with a hand on her wrist, pulling her so close their chests touch. She doesn’t waste a moment in bringing their lips together, the taste a mixture of lake water and something uniquely Regina. Emma smiles into the kiss.

“That was cool,” Emma murmurs when they break apart.

Regina grins. “Come on. I want to go back into the sun.”

They pull themselves out of the water, hands linked by a single finger, stumbling and laughing all across the field back to the shelter until Emma trips over her own feet, bringing them both tumbling to the ground. They don’t get back up.

Instead, they roll onto their sides, Regina tucking herself against Emma’s chest and Emma encircling Regina’s waist with strong arms and tucking her face into the crook of Regina’s neck. After being so cold for so long, it’s amazing to see the sun again.

They lie there in the grass, basking in the burning heat, and sleep.


End file.
